The 1985 Kangaroo Tour of New Zealand was a mid-season tour of New Zealand by the Australia national rugby league team. The Australians played six matches on tour, including the final two games of a three-game test series against the New Zealand with the first test taking place in Brisbane on 18 June. The NZ tour began on 19 June and finished on 10 July. [1]
After long time coach Frank Stanton stepped down from representative coaching duties after Australia's successful defense of The Ashes in 1984 against the touring Great Britain Lions, the Australian Rugby League appointed former World Cup and Parramatta Eels coach Terry Fearnley as head coach of the Kangaroos. The team was captained by Wally Lewis who had also captained the team in 1984.
While he was named Australian coach, Terry Fearnley had also been appointed as New South Wales State of Origin coach in 1985. The Blues won their first ever Origin series in 1985 after winning games 1 and two. In what was to prove a case of bad planning, the test series and the tour of New Zealand were scheduled to take place between games 2 and 3 of the Origin series.
Rumours soon surfaced that Fearnley and Lewis did not get along on tour. Lewis later confirmed this by admitting in television interviews that the pair hated each other while Fearnley openly admitted that in light of the circumstances he could have done a better job in bringing the team together. Lewis also publicly stated that he believed Fearnley openly favoured the teams vice-captain, NSW's Wayne Pearce as well as the rest of the Kangaroos who were in his NSW team. At one point before the third test in Auckland, Lewis claimed to have caught Fearnley and Pearce going over team selection in Fearnley's hotel room, something strongly denied by the pair.
Fearnley himself created controversy on the tour. In the book King Wally which was published in 1987, Wally Lewis claimed that Fearnley had said of team member Michael O'Connor (a NSW player) "Can't play, no heart. Lucky he can kick goals or he wouldn't be here". The publishing of this story led to some animosity over the coming years between Lewis and O'Connor despite them being regular test team mates until the end of 1989. But the biggest controversy came from the team selection for the third test. Fearnley dropped four players from the second test win, all Queenslanders (Chris Close, Mark Murray, Greg Dowling and Greg Conescu - Close and Dowling dropped to the bench), which caused all hell to break loose and prompted Queensland Rugby League Chairman, Senator Ron McAuliffe, to publicly condemn the dropping of the four Queensland players from a winning Test side, saying "Its a football assassination and beyond all reasoning. And there can be no reasonable excuse for it". [2]
With the replacement players in place (Steve Ella, Des Hasler, Peter Tunks and Benny Elias), the disjointed Kangaroos would go on to lose the third test 18–0, the first time they had been held scoreless since losing 19–0 to Great Britain in 1956. Such was the animosity in the group between the NSW and Qld players that according to second row forward Paul Vautin (a Queenslander), dropped players Mark Murray and Greg Conescu acted as the Australian teams statisticians for the game. In his book Fatty: The Strife and Times of Paul Vautin, he told that both recorded a number of errors that were actually made by team mates to the players who replaced them in the side, Hasler and Elias. [3]
Terry Fearnley stepped down as Australian coach following the tour. He would be replaced in 1986 by 1956–57 Kangaroo tourist and Canberra Raiders head coach Don Furner.
As a result of the problems during the tour, the Australian Rugby League made a number of decisions for future Australian teams, including:
Immediately prior to the tour, the first test took place at Lang Park in Brisbane on 18 June. This match is most remembered for the sideline fight between rival prop forwards Greg Dowling and Kevin Tamati after the pair had been sent to the sin-bin for fighting. [4]
Tuesday, 18 June |
Australia  | 26 – 20 |  New Zealand |
|---|---|---|
| Tries: 5 John Ribot (2) Noel Cleal Chris Close Steve Roach Goals: 3 Mal Meninga (2/6) John Ribot (1/1) | [5] [6] [7] | Tries: 3 Dean Bell Olsen Filipaina Hugh McGahan Goals: 4 Olsen Filipaina (4) |
Lang Park, Brisbane Attendance: 22,000 Referee: Julien Rascagneres  Player of the Match: Olsen Filipaina |
          Australia |     New Zealand |
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The Australians played six games on the tour, winning five.
| Sunday, 23 June | South Island  | 0 – 56 |  Australia | Addington Showgrounds, Christchurch | |
| Tries: nil Goals: nil | [8] [9] [10] [11] | Tries: 11 Mal Meninga (3) John Ribot (2) Des Hasler (2) Wally Lewis Garry Jack John Ferguson Michael O'Connor Goals: 6 Mal Meninga (6) | Attendance: 6,800 Referee: Don Wilson Player of the Match: Mal Meninga |
| Wednesday, 26 June | Central Districts  | 4 – 24 | Australia | Hutt Recreation Ground, Wellington | |
| Tries: Goals: | [12] | Tries: Goals: | Attendance: 5,500 |
The Australians escaped with a 10-6 win over New Zealand thanks to a last minute try to winger John Ribot.
Sunday, 30 June |
| New Zealand | 6 – 10 | Australia |
|---|---|---|
| Tries: James Leuluai Goals: Olsen Filipaina (1) | [13] [14] [15] | Tries: John Ribot Goals: Mal Meninga (2) John Ribot (1) |
Carlaw Park, Auckland Attendance: 19,132 Referee: Julien Rascagneres Player of the Match: Olsen Filipaina |
New Zealand | Australia |
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| Wednesday, 3 July | Northern Districts  | 6 – 52 | Australia | Okara Park, Whangārei | |
| Tries: Goals: | [16] [17] [18] | Tries: Goals: | Attendance: 1,500 Referee: Ray Shrimpton Player of the Match: Peter Tunks |
The dead rubber third test also doubled as the first game of the 1985–1988 Rugby League World Cup tournament. John Ribot, Steve Ella, John Ferguson, Peter Wynn and Chris Close played their last tests for Australia.
Sunday, 7 July |
| New Zealand | 18 – 0 | Australia |
|---|---|---|
| Tries: Clayton Friend (2) James Leuluai Goals: Olsen Filipaina (3) | [19] [20] [21] | Tries: Goals: |
Carlaw Park, Auckland Attendance: 15,327 Referee: Julien Rascagneres Player of the Match: Clayton Friend |
New Zealand | Australia |
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| Tuesday, 9 July | Auckland  | 10 – 50 | Australia | Carlaw Park, Auckland | |
| Tries: Goals: | [22] [23] [24] | Tries: Goals: | Attendance: 18,000 Referee: Dennis Hale |
Walter James Lewis AM is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, and coached in the 1980s and 1990s. He became a commentator for television coverage of the sport. A highly decorated Australian national captain, Lewis is widely regarded as one of the greatest ever players of rugby league. His time as a player and coach was followed by a career as a sports presenter for the Nine Network.
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The 1954 Great Britain Lions tour was a tour by the Great Britain national rugby league team of Australia and New Zealand which took place between May and August 1954. Captained by Dickie Williams, the tour involved a schedule of 32 games: 22 in Australia and 10 in New Zealand, with two three-match Test Series against both nations.
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A common feature of many of the tour matches was rough play, punches being throw in and out of tackles. The July 10 match against New South Wales was abandoned by the referee seventeen minutes into the second half due to persistent brawling by the players.
One week after the abandoned game, Australia won the Third Test to claim the Ashes by a 2–1 margin.
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The tour concluded with three matches in five days back in Australia at Sydney, Canberra and Maitland.
Despite being a British team – five of the squad were Welsh, two from Scotland and hooker Tom McKinney from Northern Ireland – the team played, and were often referred to by both the press at home and away, as England.
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The 1952–53 Kangaroo tour was the eighth Kangaroo tour, in which the Australian national rugby league team travelled to Great Britain and France and played forty matches, including the Ashes series of three Test matches against Great Britain and three Test matches against the French. It followed the tour of 1948-49 and the next was staged in 1956-57.
